


sunlight and moonbeams

by gymthree



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Can be both tbh, Carnival, Fluff, I'm Sorry, M/M, SO MUCH FLUFF, This is, Wow, carnival date, date, pre-kerberos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 10:18:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9717971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gymthree/pseuds/gymthree
Summary: Shiro takes Keith to a carnival.





	

**Author's Note:**

> THIS IS SO FLUFFY I DON'T KNOW IF I SHOULD APOLOGIZE  
> happy valentine's day! i hope this high concentration of sap will brighten your day!

Living by the desert sure has its bad sides. Thanks to so, when summer comes and temperatures go far  _ above  _ off the charts, going to the beach to cool off isn’t a simple option. Pools aren’t the easiest thing to find around either, even more when your town doesn’t have a public one.

Options come around, though. Sure, you can’t go spend your day at the beach, in the sea, sucking up popsicles and playing around with friends or family. But carnivals come to town; games and Ferris wheels, booths selling cotton candy and kisses, children’s giggles mixed with sunlight and heat-charged air.

Everyone seems to lighten up when there’s a carnival around, and Keith isn’t an exception. Although he doesn’t look like it, he does enjoy going outside and being somewhere like that. All the amusements make up for people and loud chatter all around him, and he becomes a kid again, having so many experiences from a lost childhood.

Shiro catches up on that quite quickly; he notices that something is different with his boyfriend in the first morning the carnival is around. He’s smiling more, he’s not exploding as easily, he seems more relaxed and happier. Just to make sure, he’s got to ask.

“Keith?”

“Yeah?” Keith turns around, looking at Shiro over his shoulder, locks of soft black hair poking into his cheek.

“Did something happen?”

Keith fully turns around, and takes a few steps closer, a playful look on his face. “No, why?”

“You seem—Happy, today.”

“Are you implying I’m not a happy person, Shirogane?” He challenges, taking a hand up to Shiro’s chest and pushing him back, forcing him to stumble a few tiny steps.

“No, I just—Happier, is what I meant. You seem  _ happier. _ ”

“That’s not what you said, though,” the younger man shrugs, smirking, and walking back to the stack of books he was examining. After a few seconds of silence, Keith continues, his back facing Shiro and the rest of the room. “It’s just that, the carnival’s around. Everyone is happier when the carnival’s around.”

Again, Shiro stands in silence and stillness for a short while, looking at Keith’s back as if he could see through it. As if he could read the emotions in the man’s face through the muscles in his torso.

“I can take you there, if you want.”

“What?” This time, Keith fully turns around on his heels, and a smile full of expectations tries to take over his lips.

“You know, tomorrow, we’ll have most of the afternoon free. I can take you for a date, take you to the carnival, if you’d like.”

Attempting poorly to hide his smile, Keith pretends to consider it for a few seconds. He gives in almost instantly, but still pretending lack of excitement, “Well, it’s not like I’ve got anything better to do, anyway.”

“Thank God,” Shiro sighs, dreamily, taking on the joke. Smiling wide, he inches closer and steals a kiss from Keith’s lips, and they both start giggling before their mouths are even properly apart.

Keith, smiling against Shiro’s lips, drapes his arms over the other man’s shoulders, hands meeting behind his neck. He pulls his face back, a tiny bit, just so that he can look into Shiro’s eyes. They’re fond, sweet, and a smile is so clearly imprinted in them that it’s hard not to smile back, in the same intensity.

“Thanks, Shiro,” Keith whispers, his voice so low, and so true, that –  _ as if it’s even possible  _ – Shiro’s smile widens.

“It’s nothing. You’re welcome, baby,” he replies, leaving a soft, quick kiss to Keith’s forehead.

For a few seconds, Keith doesn’t let go of Shiro, even though he knows he should. They have stuff to do, things to go through. If he could, though, he’d just enjoy the quiet relief of his boyfriend’s skin against his, the smell of his cologne, the feel of his breath brushing against his nose. He looks up again, meets Shiro’s longing glance again, and looks down again. Closing his eyes and pressing his lips together into a thin line, he pulls his arms back and lets go.

  
  
  
  
  


Although it’s Thursday, the carnival’s full. There are people by every booth, playing all of the games. There’s a line for the Ferris wheel and kids walking around with balloons. A sugary, almost caramelized smell fills the air, and as Keith stands by the entrance, his eyes dart rapidly from one thing to the other, and they widen as it goes. Chuckling, Shiro places a hand on his lower back, also analyzing the view.

“So,” he says, “what do you want to do first?”

“I…,” Keith hesitates and still stares dreamily at the whole thing before looking to Shiro so quickly, he’s  _ clearly  _ not trying to hold in or hide any excitement. “Churros! Can we get churros? Please?”

Shiro laughs out loud, and the look in his face softens even more when he sees uncertainty fill his boyfriend’s face along with a blush. “Of course we can. Come on.”

Keith’s like a child as he walks along with Shiro, eyes shining as he looks around at everything, every booth, every person, everything, everything. Shiro feels his heart warm and loving at the cute image he is, right now. When they get churros, Keith takes a large bite and sugar sticks to his lips, but he’s smiling so wide that Shiro can’t bother to point it out.

They stop and sit in a bench to eat, and watch people go by. Keith finishes his churro before Shiro, and his eyes find something while there are only a couple bites left of the older man’s pastry.

“Shirooo,” he calls, and from that very instant Shiro  _ knows  _ Keith is going to ask him for something.

“Yeah?”

“Can I play? That?,” he points at a booth with one of those very traditional games, of trying to hit a stack of bottles and throw it to the ground with tennis balls. If the goal is achieved, the reward is a stuffed animal.

“Sure, let me just finish my churro.”

Keith turns around and looks expectantly to Shiro, who returns his gaze for a few seconds before losing it and laughing, covering his mouth with his hand.

“What are you doing, Keith?”

“Waiting. For you to finish your churro.”

Shiro laughs again, and smiles sweetly. “You do know staring at me won’t make me eat any faster, right?”

“That, we’ll see.”

“Keith, come on. Be patient. Calm down.”

“But I want to plaaaaay, Shiro…”

“Keith, you’re not making me go any faster.”

“Shiroooo…”

Shiro sighs and takes a bite out of his churro, and he sees as Keith gets even more excited after he does so. He looks back at the younger man and smiles a little bit, just lips, no teeth. “You’re going to have to wait, Keith.”

Keith tilts his head and drops his smile, mouth forming a  _ tiny  _ pout. “Takashiiii, pleeease...,” he whines, and a lump forms in Shiro’s throat as he hears his first name.

“Fine,” Shiro chokes out, trying to seem as if he’d lost his patience, when actually Keith just used of his weakness. Keith knew he was going to get what he wanted by whining with Shiro’s first name, because instead of the look that was on his face beforehand, now he’s smirking. Just slightly, his lips barely curving upwards, but smirking nonetheless. Shiro could say he’s annoyed by how he’s being used, but that wouldn’t be accurate.

They stand up, and Shiro eats the last bit of his churro, following his overly excited boyfriend to the booth. Most people who just know Keith, those who barely know him, wouldn’t recognize him at all, happy and cheery like he is. But Shiro knows him better than that, he knows how he completely changes when he’s happy. He knows his smiles and his full-on laughter, how his head tilts back when he can’t stop laughing. It’s definitely not something he gets as often as he wishes he did, and more often than not, they’re not as genuine as he wishes they were, but it’s enough. Makes him value truly happy Keith even more.

And there he is, smile stamped on his face, just by the booth, waiting for Shiro to get there and analyzing which stuffed toy he’s going to get if he wins – and he probably will. Shiro gets to where he is and smiles back at the teenage girl smiling softly at his boyfriend, amused with how excited he is.

“Here,” he gives her a dollar bill and she nods, putting the money into a little box and handing Keith a chest with three tennis balls.

Within the matter of maybe, if that much, five seconds, Keith picks up a tennis ball and throws it at the stack of empty plastic bottles, missing the unaware teen by  _ inches.  _ As Shiro apologizes repeatedly to her, who is a little bit shocked but laughs it off quickly, Keith grins and cheers “Yes!” at the empty table where no bottle stands anymore. He’s already won, with one single shot. Well, Shiro was expecting that anyway.

“Wow,” the girl chuckles for a second before standing before them. “You’re one of the few who’s won in the first shot, with the week I’ve been here. What toy do you want?”

“The alien kitty,” Keith says, clearly already decided, as he points to a purple cat plushie, with yellow eyes and fangs. It’s cute, and not too big, and as soon as his boyfriend grabs it from the girl’s hands and hugs it, Shiro already knows it’s soft and Keith likes it a lot. “Thank you!” He smiles to the girl as he walks away with Shiro, waving a bit, and the girl waves back.

“Do you like it?” Shiro asks, as if he doesn’t already know the answer.

“Yeah. It’s really cute, I really wanted it. Thank you, too.”

“Me? I didn’t do anything. You were the one who won the game.”

“Yeah, but you paid for it. Thanks for paying for it,” Keith frowns as he says, as if what he’s telling Shiro is obvious. Well, maybe it is.

“It’s nothing. No problem.”

Keith stands in silence for some time, in the middle of everyone’s way, but not giving a damn about it. He’s looking down at his toy, running the tips of his fingers through the plush in the kitten’s back. He looks up again, and around, choosing what to do next. He doesn’t seem to choose something, though, and turns to face Shiro.

“So. What do you want to do now?” Shiro questions, and Keith answers with a sigh.

“I don’t know. Let’s take a walk around, see if anything catches our eye, and then we see, yeah?”

“Sure,” Shiro shrugs, and starts going towards the rest of the carnival, in the direction of the Ferris wheel, placed right at the end of the pathway that cut through the whole thing. Keith follows, speeding up his pace a little bit to catch up to the older man.

It’s so nice to see everyone around them, smiling, laughing, playing typical carnival games and eating sugary treats. The atmosphere all around them is so calm, so happy, no one thinks of complaining. There’s nothing to complain about.

The two of them stop and play a game with water guns, with no rewards, just for the sake of having fun. Shiro wins this time, and Keith frowns for a second. Shiro doesn’t hesitate to kiss that frown away, and they’re both smiling in the next moment.

A booth selling pretzels is right across from the game they just finished, and this time, Shiro’s the one to suggest they buy some. Keith, instead, thinks of something that he knows Shiro won’t be able to deny.

“Are you hungry, though?” He argues after the suggestion, and Shiro raises one single eyebrow, something between confused and challenging.

“Not really…?”

“Well, I’m not  _ quite  _ hungry either. Why don’t we just share one pretzel?”

Shiro laughs a breathy, short chuckle, and grins. “Okay. Why not.”

After the first bite, his lips are covered in salt, and crumbles fall on his shirt as he hands his boyfriend the food. Keith takes it and is more careful when eating some, holding it away from his shirt for tiny pieces to land on the ground, not his clothes. His lips do end up covered in salt, though, and that’s unavoidable.

People look at them quickly as they walk by, and the sweet image of the boyfriends sharing the pretzel between giggles and sighs makes everyone smile. Shiro knows about that, and it makes him even happier that Keith is like this, all happy and smiley, and… Feeling good. He’s usually much more severe and hotheaded, direct and cold. When he does relax, it’s something Shiro wishes would last as long as possible.

They spend the rest of sunlit hours playing small games and eating unusual food, things they wouldn’t eat on normal days but they just _have_ _to_ when in a carnival. Sometime before sunset, they decide to get into the line for the Ferris wheel, to see if they can go on it right by the time the sun will go down.

While Shiro’s waiting in line, Keith wanders off for a second – “I’ll be right back,” he says before leaving – and decides, he’s going to buy some cold drinks for him and Shiro, with his own money. The day’s coming to an end and all, so the air is getting heavy and the heat does not forgive, still intense even as it nears nighttime.

He unknowingly walks by a milkshake bar, not stopping, because what he has in mind is smoothies or bubble tea. In the next moment, though, he walks back and turns around, deciding on the milkshakes.

One cookies & cream milkshake and one peanut butter milkshake in hands, he walks back to the line, and Shiro holds back a laugh when he sees the effort Keith’s putting into balancing the heavy drinks in his hands, and avoiding people to not let a single droplet pour out of the plastic cups.

“What’s this?” Shiro chuckles as he takes the peanut butter milkshake from the younger boy’s hands. Keith frowns and shakes his head, stretching out his other arm and indicating that the cookies & cream milkshake is the one meant for his boyfriend. Chuckling again, Shiro mumbles an “okay” and exchanges drinks with Keith, who now smiles sweetly, satisfied with the arrangement.

Finally catching up to the question, Keith blinks a couple times and raises his head to look up at Shiro. “I got us drinks! For you, a cookies & cream milkshake, and for me, a peanut butter one. Yeah?”

“Y-yeah,” Shiro grins, holding back a laugh. It’s all so sweet, so  _ cute _ , he just wants to bear hug his boyfriend and cover his face in tiny kisses. He doesn’t, because 1, of the full to the very top cups they’re both holding, and 2, he’s in public and he’d just get in the way of anyone who’d try to pass. “Thanks, baby,” he smiles, and it just widens as Keith blushes, the top of his ears turning red.

The line seems to go faster after they are together again, and Keith’s halfway through his milkshake when their turn arrives. Shiro almost didn’t drink any of his, only watching Keith sip and play with the stuffed animal, and Shiro would happily swear at that moment that his boyfriend is the cutest thing he’d ever seen.

He pays for their tickets, but before they get on, the young man selling said tickets sighs and tells them in a very monotonous voice, “You can’t get on the ride with food and-or drinks. I’m sorry, sir, but you’ll have to throw that away.”

Keith looks devastated after hearing that, and biting back a sweet chuckle, Shiro kisses the top of his head and takes the drink from his hands. Keith turns his head and looks at him with puppy eyes, pouting.

“I’ll buy you another drink when we get back. Okay?”

Pout still on his lips, Keith whines and shifts his weight from one foot to the other, as if considering something. In the end, his shoulders drop and he smiles a bit. “Okay. Now let’s go, we’re making everyone wait,” he pulls Shiro from his arm, and the older man has to stretch to throw the milkshakes away before going along.

They get into the cart and Shiro leans back on his seat, Keith sitting across from him and smiling, blinking slowly, while they look at each other. As the very slow ride takes off, stopping from time to time for the people in the next cart to get on, they fondly smile at each other.

Shiro, to this day, gets surprised with how lucky he’s been, to be able to wake up everyday loving Keith, and with that feeling being mutual. When he wakes up with the younger man in his arms, when he wakes up with a sweet good morning text, when it’s early in the weekend and his phone rings, and the first voice he hears is Keith’s. He wakes up happy everyday because he has the best boyfriend in the world, or at least that what he feels.

To Keith, it’s the opposite.

He simply can’t believe he’s got Shiro - it’s like a dream, too good to be true, too perfect to be reality. He sees himself as undeserving of the man, but still, he can’t complain of having someone so good in his life. His heart stutters because of Shiro and he can only smile and repeat infinite I love you’s in his brain to try and measure how big his love it. Keith really can’t believe it - how lucky he is…

“I love you,” they say, at the same time. Still in sync, their eyes widen and they laugh. It’s like they share thoughts.

“How’d you guess? What I was going to say?” Keith smiles, standing up and swinging on the pole to take a seat beside Shiro.

“I didn’t. I just had to say that too,” he shrugs, and looks to the side, to Keith’s mesmerizing amethyst eyes. They’re both smiling, and trying to read each other. They can - it’s quite easy by now, really -, but still, they keep staring into each other’s eyes. Until they lose track of time.

When the sun reaches the horizon and turns the sky pink, and their cart reaches the very top of the Ferris wheel, not even conscious of where they were, they kiss.

How romantic can it get?

  
  
  
  
  


Keith’s breathing is soothing, and his pulse, calm. The pace of his fingers running through Shiro’s hair is just as relaxed, and they’re both so in harmony, so  _ serene _ , that both just wish they could freeze this moment in time. Never leave. Just live, together, sweet and soft and…

Oh, Keith’s so thankful. The day was better than any he’d had in a worryingly long time, everything happened just the way he wished they would. Even now, colder air fluctuating all around him, and moonbeams peeking through the window at their intertwined legs, he still can’t hide his smile. It’s so genuine, it warms his heart as much as the short hot puffs hitting his shirt every now and again, when Shiro shifts a bit and his mouth parts - every time, Keith holds back a sigh, because Shiro’s so  _ cute _ , so  _ pure _ . Keith wants to protect him from all evil in the world.

Truly, Keith wants to thank him. Thank him for everything, every single smile and every single kiss. Every single ‘i hope you’re okay’ and every single appearance at midnight, or past that, just because of a tweet or text that didn’t sound right, didn’t sound as fine as he pretended he was - he wasn’t good at that, pretending. Maybe Shiro was just good at reading him.

“Shiro? Are you asleep?”

“Hnnnoooo,” Shiro mutters, raising his head very sleepily, groggily. He doesn’t raise his head properly before trying to look up at Keith, so his nose is all crumpled up against the younger man’s chest.

“Crap, forget it, sorry for waking you up, Takashi,” Keith mumbles, feeling his face burn, but he’s just mad at himself.

“Noo, I’m awake. What is it, baby?”

“Nothing important. Go back to sleep, I’m sorry, I--”

“Tell me, please,” Shiro whines, nudging his nose against Keith’s collarbone until it tickles and he chuckles.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

“What for?” Shiro raises his head, and his grey eyes look so innocent, so sweet. Keith believes that he really doesn’t know, and in a surge of tenderness, kisses the tip of his nose.

“Everything. Today, and every other day. I owe you a lot,” he laughs, trying to take the importance off of the five little words, but not quite managing to - as said before, Shiro knows how to read Keith well, maybe too well for his own liking.

“I also owe you a lot, Keith. Thank you, too. I love you.”

The moment’s perfect for them; their eyes meet, their facial expressions and feelings are nothing but genuine, and the environment is also perfect. The room’s cold, although not quite, and they’re so close to each other that they’re able to warm up just by human contact. There are no lights on, and the semi-darkness is only broken by moonbeams, dancing around and twisting through the window.

“I love you too, Takashi.”

Lips sweet and words sweeter, the kiss they share is the best closure to a day full of sunlight and moonbeams.


End file.
